To anyone who wants to complain that movies today
are too long, I say look to the early 60s. I sort of get why the epics like Ben-Hur,
The Ten Commandments, and Dr. Zhivago are so long. However, I
have no idea why It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Great Escape
are. I like the basic structure of The Great Escape. It's 2/3s showing
the work put into the escape and 1/3 escape and recapture. I fail to see why
this needed to take nearly three hours. Two would've been plenty of time,
right?
The length does have some benefits. We get to know
the characters better. It's able to juggle more story lines to show a variety of
escape results. It allows for plenty of time to cover the process of tunnel
digging. When they finally do escape, I appreciated the effort. I would've
sacrificed 10-20% of that thoroughness for 30-35% less movie. It hit diminishing
returns after a certain point.
This is somehow my first Steve McQueen movie, which
doesn't seem possible. Is there a movie out there with both McQueen and Paul
Newman? I'd sure like to see what that much swagger in one movie would look
like. The famous motorcycle scene is pretty great. I really loved the score.
This is a really enjoyable movie. It gets serious on occasion, but it's more of
a "hang out" movie a lot of the time, in which the fun comes from
seeing a bunch of likable characters bounce off one another. If not for the
long run time, I'd be very favorable about the movie.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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